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Indian Journal of History of Science, 48.3 (2013) 447-475

BENGALI ENTREPRENEURS AND WESTERNTECHNOLOGY IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY:

A SOCIAL PERSPECTIVE

SUVOBRATA SARKAR*

(Received 14 November, 2011; revised 16 July, 2013)

The paper tries to elucidate the history of 19th century businessventures initiated by the enterprising Bengalis based on the western scienceand technology. This was mostly known as a period of arresteddevelopment for indigenous business enterprises in Bengal. But the riseof Ramdulal Dey, Dwarkanath Tagore, and others establishes the fact thatthere was no dearth of entrepreneurial abilities in the period. Dwarkanathsuccessfully utilized modern technology for business ventures followedby Hemendramohan Bose, Kishori Mohan Bagchi and above all the greatscientist of Bengal P. C. Ray. The paper seeks to explore the perceptionsand response of the Bengali entrepreneurs towards technology as an agentof industrial development of the country.

Key words: Entrepreneurship, Modern technology, Technicalknowledge.

INTRODUCTION

“Foreigners come here and in a short time earn enough to live in comfortback home, and our country is being pumped dry in the process. Perhapsthings will now change. Downtrodden Hindustan will now compete withother trading countries. Many others follow the path shown by Tagore(Dwarkanath) and engage in similar ventures, which are beneficial andbold and deserve praise, and thus help remove the bad name of theHindus as idle and ignorant.”

J–ānāneshan1, 9 August, 1834

* PhD Scholar, Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, NewDelhi. e-mail: [email protected]

448 INDIAN JOURNAL OF HISTORY OF SCIENCE

“When I founded the BCPW (Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical WorksLtd in 1892) I had not only the idea of wiping out the reproach that theBengalees were good for nothing in business affairs, but also of makingit a model institution.”

P. C. Ray to a colleague at BCPW (1897?)2.

The nineteenth century was a century of arrested development forindigenous business enterprises in Bengal. This has engaged the attention ofscholars for long and no single agreed explanation exists to account for it.The standard trope informs us that Indians as a nation were indifferent tobusiness, lacking enterprise and acumen, averse to toil beyond raising enoughcrops to sustain them.3 Yet there were many Bengalis who started their ownbusiness enterprises. How they emerged is certainly a very important areaof historical research. In the second half of the nineteenth century the numberof Bengali enterprises arose with moderate success, not even that few ofthem successfully utilized modern science and technology in their businessventures. They were not the borrower of western technology, but employedtheir own technology based on rigorous research. The present paper seeksto restore the history of Bengali entrepreneurship in various modern linesand identify their approach in science and technology.

THE AGE OF GREAT ENTERPRISE

Technical education is but one way in which the culture of technologyspreads. Another way is through enterprises and experience. Europeanenterprises and government agencies restricted non-Europeans to the lowerjobs until they were forced to do otherwise by political pressures at the veryend of the colonial era. Enterprises owned by the Indians, in contrast, hadevery incentive to use their own people, for reasons of ethnic solidarity aswell as economy.4

Entrepreneurship alone does not lead to economic development. Thekinds of enterprises that could have led to economic development requiredother elements: information about foreign machines, technical processes,and business practices, information which was not forthcoming from theeducational system.5 In other words, they had to be importers of technologiesfrom western countries, mainly Britain.

449BENGALI ENTREPRENEURS AND WESTERN TECHNOLOGY

India was once a manufacturing nation whose industrial productssupplied, for centuries, the needs of vast Asian and European markets;spinning and weaving and other handicrafts had provided whole-time orpart-time employment to millions of men and women. But all these hadgradually disappeared with the advent of the British. One of the mostmomentous consequences of the establishment of British supremacy was thedisruption of the centuries’ old union between agriculture and manufacturingindustry as a result of the progressive decline and destruction of the Indiantown handicrafts and village artisan industries.6 Thus British rule broughtthe destruction of traditional handicrafts along with their technical know-how, drainage of wealth through direct plunder and revenue extraction, andthe transplantation of Western type industrial capitalism in India.7 The factthat England underwent an industrial revolution while India could not stageone gave England the superiority she deserved. Superior manufacturingmethods based on steam power and improved machinery enabled Britishmanufacturers to undersell Indian artisans in their own country. Themechanization of industries, the growth of capital, the institution of thejoint-stock company and managing agency, and the monopolization of colonialmarkets for finished goods, enabled England to score a complete victory.8Contemporary Bengali journals were vocal about the necessity of indigenousenterprise to strengthen the economy through out the nineteenth century.Samāchār Darpa reported:

“Europeans properly utilized capital and achieved a distinct place in worldcivilization by their business skills. We are advising our fellow countrymento give up their laziness and follow the European path of business. Theyshould learn from the people of western India how to start businessventures successfully. The Bengali people prefer to lend money withinterest to Europeans. Here the irony is the poor Europeans become richby properly utilizing the loans in various business ventures and the richBengalis become poor. So the affluent class of our society should starttheir own business and stop flattering the Europeans. Then only Bengalcan start her journey towards the road of prosperity.”9

Modern business activities developed by the European agency housesin the early part of the century had a substantial element of Indian partnershipbefore new developments drew a clearer line between the black and whitespaces. The agency houses10 were originally the carriers of private Europeantrade in Asian waters. These agency houses built ships, employed them in


the trade of the Indian Ocean, and by a natural extension went into thepromotion of insurance companies and banks. In Calcutta they promotedindustrial ventures inland: they financed the indigo planters, they sank moneyinto silk filature, and even came to manage some indigo concerns themselves.The history of the agency houses falls into three periods.11 From 1783 to1813 the houses were few in number and their partners closely associatedwith company officials who were also their constituents. The second phasebegan after the opening of India to private trade in 1813, when a largenumber of new houses were formed by adventurers from Britain. The thirdphase of agency-house history began in 1834 and lasted until the commercialcrisis of 1847. In the second phase, although there was moderate participationof the Bengali businessmen, in the third phase they emerged as active partnersof various managing agency houses.

Closely associated with the agency houses were their brokers. Theirfunction was to bring in and guarantee contracts for the supply of exportableproduce from inland merchants. The brokers were called Banians in Calcutta.12

Sometimes they might be important merchants conducting business on theirown. Raghuram Gosain, the Bengali banian of Palmer & Co., was a richmerchant in his own right. The early-nineteenth century banian RamdulalDey was a model, who acquired a fortune as a factor for the Americantraders. The banians were English-speaking Bengalis from Brāhmin,Kāyastha, and Banik castes, frequently financiers of their European principals.Motilal Seal, a Bengali ship-owner and merchant magnate, lent money whileacting as broker to Oswald Seal & Co.13 Dwarkanath Tagore in his ownunique way became a pioneer entrepreneur of the mid-nineteenth century.

Dwarkanath Tagore (1794-1846)14, a western-educated BengaliBrahmin, was acknowledged civic leader of Calcutta during the 1830s and1840s. Though a brilliant entrepreneur, he subordinated his business activitiesto political and social ends. Tagore envisioned a future India that waswesternized and industrialized and whose inhabitants enjoyed, withoutdiscrimination, the rights and liberties of Englishmen.

Carr, Tagore & Co. was the first equal partnership between Europeanand Indian businessmen and the initiator of the managing agency system inIndia. Dwarkanath launched the firm in 1834 with the partnership of William


Carr, a respected indigo trader of Calcutta. Tagore not only provided thefirm’s capital, but selected the partners, directed the investment strategy, andthrough out his life time, actively guided the house. Carr, Tagore & Co. was,in fact, more a patriarchy than a partnership. The incident drew the attentionof the Bengali press, as Samāchār Darpa observed:

“Carr, Tagore & Co.

The new firm of Carr, Tagore and Co. is announced today. The secondmember of this firm is Baboo Dwarkanath Tagore, some time Dewan ofthe Salt Board, which office he vacated about six weeks ago for thepurpose of commencing the career of a general merchant and agent. Thecircumstance is worthy of notice since it is the first instance of a Hindooadopting European habits of business in Calcutta, and entering into thefield of agency and foreign commerce on European principles…”15

When the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce was set up in 1834Dwarkanath became one of its members16, along with Rustomji Cowasji17.Tagore’s fortune had been founded on landholding and money lending, andamong his business interests were the import and export trade, indigo andsilk manufacture, sugar refining, ocean shipping, docking, newspapers,insurance and banking.

In the Indian community, as in government circles, the climate ofopinion was ripe for Dwarkanath’s move. Ever since the commercial crisisof 1830, the idea of Bengalis launching modern business firms had beenunder discussion in the Bengali press. The conservative Samāchār Chandrikāurged zamindars to purchase and operate the European-owned indigo factoriesleft idle by the crisis and forestall the colonization of the countryside byEuropeans.18 The moderate Reformer called on the Bengalis to ‘competewith the nations of Europe and America, not only in English literature, butin fine arts, sciences and commerce’; Hindus could no longer blame theirreligion for entrepreneurial backwardness because there were now ‘enoughenlightened Hindoos who can lead the way.’19 Radical Young Bengal, voicingtheir opinions in the journal J–ānāneshan, urged their countrymen to castoff their ‘natural idleness and lethargy, and armed with the weapons ofbusiness, commerce and industry, triumph over the enemies of theirprosperity.’20 When Dwarkanath launched his firm, Young Bengal found ahero.21


On 2 January 1836, Tagore made the most momentous investment ofhis entire career. He purchased for 70,000 rupees India’s largest coal mine,the Raniganj Colliery, in Burdwan.22 To further the sale of coal, Tagorepromoted during the next decade a series of coal utilizing enterprises andwas responsible, more than any other individual outside of governmentservice, for leading India into the age of steam engine. Between 1836 and1846 Dwarkanath promoted six joint stock companies: the Calcutta SteamTug Association (1836), the Bengal Salt Company (1838), the Calcutta SteamFerry Bridge Company (1839), the Bengal Tea Association (1839), the BengalCoal Company (1844) and the India General Steam Navigation Company(1844).23 He was also one of the doyens of the modern system of bankingin India. The Union Bank, of which he was a director24, contributed to the

Fig. 1: This tug engine was brought to India at around 1840 by M/S Steam Tug Association forrunning their tug repairing workshop at Kidderpur Dockyard. The managing agent of this companywas M/S Carr, Tagore & Co. with Dwarkanath Tagore as one of the partners. (Courtesy of theB.I.T.M, Kolkata)


development of native trade and commerce by extending commercial credit.Rowland Macdonald Stephenson, the pioneer of the Indian railways, cameto India to survey the route and to urge support for his plan in 1844.Dwarkanath realized the importance of railways for the upliftment of theeconomy and extended his support. His friend William Theobald wrote toStephenson that Tagore ‘is very desirous to have a Railway to the Collieries(Raniganj), and would raise one-third of the capital for this portion of theline, if undertaken immediately.’25 Towards the end of his life, he joined inthe promotion of the Great Western of Bengal Railway Company.26

One of Tagore’s goals was to carry over the commercial partnershipsand other organizational forms of the mercantile age into the industrial age.A second goal was to import the industrial revolution into India and to adaptthe steam engine to commercial use. While launching Carr, Tagore & Co. herightly said his house would be an instrument of national regeneration anda model to be emulated by his countrymen.

The careers of Motilal Seal, Ram Gopal Ghosh, Digambar Mitra,Surya Kumar Tagore, Raghunath Goswami, Bholanath Chandra, etc. onlyillustrate that there was no dearth of entrepreneurial ability among Bengalipeople in the first half of nineteenth century. In an essay on Motilal Seal,Kissory Chand Mitra admonished Bengali youth for considering governmentemployment the pinnacle of all careers; he encouraged them to emulate thegreat merchant of the 1840s. Kissory Chand asked why it was that ‘this mostfertile province has been sunk, till late, in poverty and intellectual torpor?It is chiefly because industrial activity and commercial enterprise have notcome to convert it into a garden.’27 They successfully utilized the prevailingatmosphere in their favour and acquired a huge fortune. One observer notedthat the new banians had ‘assumed airs which their more wealthy predecessorshad never taken on themselves; they treated their European connections notonly with contemptuous disregard, but often with much insolence. The Hindoostar was in the ascendant, and these men made the most of it.’28 By 1840it appeared that Calcutta and its hinterland were on the threshold of a smallscale industrial revolution. Despite the paucity of capital, the local businesscommunity embarked upon a broad range of steam-powered industries. In1844 one observer noted that ‘on approaching Calcutta, the smoke chimneysof steam-engines are now seen in every direction, on the either side of theriver, presenting the gratifying appearance of a seat of numerous extensive


manufactories, vying with many British cities.’29 Then a series of commercialcrises shook the Calcutta business community and by 1850 the momentumfailed. If the dynamism of the ‘age of enterprise’ had been sustained, if the‘industrial revolution’ of the 1840s had not been aborted, Bengal might havedeveloped indigenous industries with its natural and human resources.

THE MOMENTUM FAILED: BHADRALOK PERCEPTIONS

For a brief interlude at midpoint in the history of Bengal-the 1830sand 1840s-Bengalis were the most active associates of the British in themodern sector of the economy. The era of Bengali participation coincidedwith the growth of interracial civic institutions and local community spirit.It also witnessed the introduction of the steam engine on a commercialscale, the development of new industries such as tea, steam shipping, andcoal mining; and the application of new forms of business organization: thejoint stock company, the managing agency system and commercial banking.

In the first half of the nineteenth century Calcutta’s largest businessinstitution was the Union Bank. But due to unsound exchange transactionswith London and insecure advances in the falling indigo market, the UnionBank crashed in 1848,30 bringing down with it various others. Indian enterprisein Calcutta, including the giant Carr, Tagore & Co, which had sprung upin partnership with Europeans, suffered a blow, from which it did notrecover.31

After mid-century the international environment was no longerfavourable to the growth of big Indian business in the country’s ports andabroad. Between 1850 and 1880 a series of technological and organizationalchanges-the completion of the railways reaching far into the interior, thedevelopment of the steamship services through the Suez Canal, and thelinking up of the inland telegraph and the overseas cables into one giganticworld-wide system of information at electrical speed32-decisively shifted thebusiness balance of power away from smaller Indian firms to bigger Europeanfirms in India, and from India itself to the world centre of trade and financelocated in the city of London. From the suppression of the Mutiny (1858)to the outbreak of the First World War (1914), private European enterprise,which had already established new forms of industry, enjoyed a position ofunchallenged supremacy in the Indian economy.


The enterprises undertaken during the period from 1830 to 1850were poorly managed and failed to make good use of modern technology.Although Dwarkanath tried to incorporate western technology in his businessventures, many of his enterprises failed or nearly failed as a result of poormanagement. His fundamental error was to miscalculate the strength and tomisread the nature of the British commitment to India.33 Carr, Tagore & Co.was not truly a partnership of equals. Dwarkanath established the house andinvited William Carr, William Prinsep, and other impecunious Britishmerchants to join him in the use of his capital. They had nothing to lose andeverything to gain by accepting his offer, and they left for home as soon aspossible. Nor did the British reciprocate his bid for genuine social intercourse.It was at his home that they gathered to be lavishly entertained; they did notreturn the invitation. If Dwarkanath wanted interracial cooperation, he hadto provide the framework, whether it be a charitable society or a joint-stockcompany. Dwarkanath labored in vain, for the British would not acceptgenuine partnership with an Indian.34

In the first half of the nineteenth century the European tradingcompanies employed as compradors Brāhmins and Kāyasthas as well asmembers of the indigenous trading and artisan castes-Subarabaniks,Gandhabaniks, Tantubaniks and Telis.36 We have seen that, from 1750 to1850 the Bengali compradors or banians steadily rose to prominence in theeconomic life of the province. After 1850, those employed by these firmswere gradually reduced to the status of petty clerks, and then dismissed infavour of young Englishmen.36 Thus the banians of Calcutta were eliminatedfrom modern business as the economics of empire attained maturity.

Since the early nineteenth century spokesmen of the Bengali middleclass have searched for the causes of entrepreneurial backwardness and forways to stimulate business enterprise among Bengalis. Basically the problemof the Bengalis was one of conflicting values. There were deep-seated socialand cultural factors. Power over land, not mercantile or industrial enterprise,was the economic hallmark of social status. Trade was associated with lowranking castes, Brāhmins and Kāyasthas considered only the intellectual andadministrative professions as proper occupations. Thus the indigenous Bengalielite turned its back on business and left modern industry and internationalcommerce in Calcutta to Europeans.37 The Bengalis preferred landlordism to


business when the Permanent Settlement offered opportunities for investmentin landed estates.38

Throughout the British period, the timidity of Bengali entrepreneurswas a recurrent topic of Bengali writers. The campaign was begun as earlyas the 1830s by the spokesmen of Young Bengal. They criticized thosebanians, who instead of launching their own commercial ventures, suppliedBritish merchants with capital.39 In the 1840s and 1850s, the chauvinisticIswar Chandra Gupta, editor of the Sambād Prabhākar, became the chiefadvocate of independent mercantile enterprise. One Tarini Charan Chaudhury,school student of Medinipur, voiced his anger over the idleness of fellowBengalis regarding business and enterprise in Prabhākar.40 On this the editorof the journal observed:

“We have published the latter of Babu Tarini Charan Chaudhury ofMedinipur on the condition of our country in the Student’s Column oftoday’s Prabhākar. We are happy that Tarini Babu requested his fellowcountrymen to start their own business enterprise. We have written on thesubject on several occasions, but unfortunately all in vain. The people ofBengal are against any kind of hard work. They prefer to spend their timeat home with no energetic work. From the attitude of such countrymen,we can easily assume the reason behind the miserable condition of thecountry. Forget about foreign trade, they are not interested in inlandbusiness also, not even within Bengal. Those with wealth; prefer to lendmoney to the Europeans for the sake of ‘tension free’ income from interests.Only if the affluent Bengalis start their own business enterprise, they canbring back the prosperity of our country.”41

On another occasion the journal wrote:“The improvement of the material condition of our people is a majorconcern of all. Our government has closed the door of various prestigiousjobs to Bengali people. So there is little hope of employment in thegovernment sector for them. There are many obstacles in the field ofindependent business also. Bengalis are not acquainted with the businessskills, especially in foreign trade. Due to religious taboo they cannotcross the ocean. The traditional business classes have a very low statusin our society. So for the upper castes (Brāhmins and Kāyasthas) toinvolve in trade is a shameful matter.

Many suggest that the rich people should engage in business enterpriselike Englishmen, so that others can be inspired by their initiatives. Thisis very much true. But the irony is they don’t have the necessary courage


to start such ventures. They prefer to nourish the business of the Europeansby sponsoring them and acted as banian in the European firms.

So the prospect for Bengal is not very bright. The lower clerical posts arethe only hope. Unless the government removes the ban on recruitingIndians to higher governmental jobs and the Bengali people start theirown business enterprise, there is no sign of hope.”42

The Sambād Pūrochandrodaya observed:“If our countrymen start their own business enterprise, then they can livean independent life. Few of our brothers understood this and started theirown business ventures. But the general trend is not very encouraging.Actually in business, the entire risk relies on the investor. So our Bengalifriends are afraid to take such risks. They hand over their wealth to theEuropeans and secure the head clerkship in those European firms. Althougha few people have sufficient money to start their own business enterprise,due to lack of stamina they are unable to take such steps.”43

The journal Sambād Prabhākar maintained a conservative stand onvarious social reform movements. It vehemently opposed the Westernizationof Bengali society and supported traditional Indian culture. But in the fieldof trade and commerce, it was a follower of the Western system of businessenterprise. The editors criticized the Bengali people for not entering tradeand commerce like their English counterparts. Once they reported:

“The prospect of a country depends on trade and business. The Bengalipeople like to do slavery. When a child gets a little education, his fathertakes him to his European master for a clerical job. Due to this trend, ourcountry is suffering a lot. Many intelligent students are forced to joinclerical jobs, abandoning their study.

In the developed countries, students after getting proper education, starttheir own business enterprises. By following this line, countries likeEngland, France, and America became so prosperous. But the picture isentirely different in our country. The rich Bengalis prefer to depend on‘interest’ from their wealth. So the independent business culture becomesvery rare in Bengal. Unless they start their own business enterprise inlarge numbers, there is no hope for our country.”44

The urban industry of India, at the beginning of the nineteenth century,was mainly handicrafts, producing fine textiles or other luxury products forthe aristocracy. There is little doubt that in these handicrafts Indian urbanindustry had reached a high-water mark of excellence. The products ofIndian industry enjoyed a world-wide reputation. Among these the cotton


industry was easily the first. But the nexus of colonialism destroyed theIndian textile industry. India became the chief exporter of raw cotton and thebiggest importer of Manchester clothes. The textile industry became extinctand there was no initiative to revive the once most flourishing industry ofIndia. Observing that well circulated journal Somprakāsh wrote:

“Promotion of indigenous enterprise-

Recently the Russians adopted a policy to promote their trade and industry.They have taken an oath not to wear anything except Russian clothes.Almost a hundred years ago the Americans were entirely dependent onBritain for clothes like us. During the American freedom movement, thepeople of that country opposed the English made clothes and startedbuilding their own textile industry. Today American clothe is the biggestcompetitor of Manchester.

In many European countries there is no business of Russian clothes. Onthe other hand many Russians love to wear foreign made clothes. Butinspite of that they are determined to wear only Russian clothes. Theirgovernment also started encouraging cotton cultivation. Combining thesetwo, we hope the Russian textile industry will flourish very soon.

Now let’s turn to India. The whole of Europe depends on Indian cottonand its cultivation is increasing day by day. But we should think of thelong term prospects. If Manchester gets cheaper cotton from other places,then what would be the condition of several cotton cultivators of India?If we really bother for our country, then we should devote ourselves tostart textile industry in our country. Every year India imports huge amountsof clothes from England. So we are requesting our countrymen to not sitidle and do something to promote the textile industry.”45

The upper-caste Bengalis were partial to administrative, professional,and intellectual occupations. As the expansion of British rule increased,young Bengalis flocked to the colleges to prepare themselves for careers inadministration, law, medicine, journalism and education. In Dwarkanath’sday, business was still a possible component of the bhadralok life style, butafter the middle of the nineteenth century, training for a profession wasusually substituted for entering business. Not only were there moreopportunities in the professions, but these careers were more in accord withthe bhadralok value system.

Entrepreneurship was a recurrent theme in the editorials of theTattobodhinī Patrikā, leading journal of the 1870s. “Our young men excel


in all other spheres”, wrote the editor, “but in business they were apathetic.”46

He urged the orthodox to defy the injunction against crossing the oceans andto take up international commerce. And he called on those who had flauntedthe taboo and were studying in Britain to train in business instead of theliberal arts and upon their return to establish schools of commerce in Bengal.47

The Amrita Bāzar Patrikā observed:“Our country is developing very fast. So the people of this country shouldstart various business enterprises considering the current economy. If theytry hard, they will definitely be successful. Honesty and punctuality arethe two requirements for successful business ventures. Why is Americaso prosperous? What are the reasons behind the advancement of Britainand other European countries? The only answer is trade and industry.”48

Somprakāsh wholeheartedly wanted modern industry to be establishedin Bengal. Tirelessly it campaigned for the cause. Once the journal observed:

“The development of Indian industry has been ruled by Englishmen formore than a hundred years. We have observed many changes during thistenure. But there is no sign of industrialization in India. Why did we notlearn industrial education during these hundred years?

The answer to this question lies in three facts. Obviously there are otherreasons also, but these three, according to us, are the prime cause. Firstlythe development of modern industries in Europe; secondly India lost itssovereignty to England; and third is the lack of business skills amongIndians.”49

Such an assessment only proved the maturity of the Bengali press ofnineteenth century. Gradually they started realizing that not only Bengalicharacter, but the subordination of India by a foreign country was alsoresponsible for India’s industrial backwardness.

Somprakāsh frequently dwelt on the growing problem of educatedunemployment. For example, the journal once wrote in its editorial:

“They (i.e. the job-seekers) don’t have the means to get hold of capitalfor taking up business or industry…Students of Civil Engineering canlook for no improvements; the Medical Department has no vacancy toabsorb even one more person…”50

Sādhārani, another important and popular journal of nineteenthcentury, shared the concern of Somprākāsh for the promotion of Bengalibusiness and industry and was sharper in its opposition to the existing scheme


of things. To cite a few examples, it once remarked that rich Bengalis wereinvariably accustomed to making wealth from government bonds, house-rent, rack-renting and seizure of revenue free lands;51 it also had a clearrecognition that ‘the real wealth of the country lay in the fertility of its soiland in the labour and enterprise of its people’.52 Again, in its disavowal ofthe allurement of government service, Sādhārani wrote that a resort to freeenterprise in agriculture or business would save people from the dailyignominy of being called ‘savage niggers’ by their foreign masters.53

In the second half of the nineteenth century great private wealth wasrare and concentrated mainly among big landlords who in their aptitude forconspicuous consumption were oriented neither to investment nor enterprise.Bengali merchants showed little inclination to turn into industrialentrepreneurs. The fact of uneven competition with British manufacturesruled out the scope of entrepreneurial efforts on the part of men of moderatemeans.

SWADESHI ENTERPRISE

When we speak of Swadeshi, we generally think of the period whichwas directly linked with the partition of Bengal (1905). In a broader sense,however, it embraces a larger period, started in the 1870s and continued till1947. During that period, Swadeshi ideas of different strands took shape,handicraft industries showed signs of revival, modern industries were set up,and technical education was disseminated through the newly constructedtechnical institutions.

The country had no state of its own; it was a subject of the BritishEmpire. Patterns of change sponsored and executed by such a system ofpower did not make for the emergence of an advanced mode of production,informed with its own intellectual and moral equipment. The pace and contentof transformation was subservient to the more primary object of colonialismto generate wealth in India and use it for the advancement of Britain’s ownsocial order. This was inherent in all the twists and turns of imperial statecraft,however masked such exercises were in the ideologies of Orientalism,Evangelism or Liberalism.54 Official economic policy in the nineteenth centurycannot really be explained in terms of an abstract creed of laissez faire,55 andgovernment expenditure on the railway, military and public works departments


did encourage certain types of industries; yet the crucial point is that thebenefits of such state patronage went overwhelmingly to Europeans. In Bengalthe age of great Calcutta merchants and entrepreneurs collaborating andcompeting on equal terms with the British was definitely over by the 1850s.The Bengali business community by the late nineteenth century consisted ofsocially not-too respectable ‘second-hand merchants and commission tradersdoing small scale business’56 and even here the Bengali traders were beingsqueezed out by the Mārwāris.57

Recently a scholar has raised his voice against the inadequateimportance given to the small and middle bourgeoisie by the economichistorians of India.58 The small and middle bourgeoisie, unlike the bigbourgeoisie, were neither brokers nor intermediaries of foreign capital. Theywere self-reliant in capital, management, and marketing. Although theydepended to some extent on foreign machinery, there were many examplesof self-reliance in this field too. Despite their limitations, they sought to beself-reliant in the field of technology. In the study of the indigenous enterprisein the Swadeshi era, the small and middle bourgeoisie deserve specialimportance.

In Bengal the idea of Swadeshi may be traced back to the efforts ofNabogopal Mitra, who, in 1867, organized the annual Hindu Mela whichregularly met for nearly fourteen years. One of the major functions of theMela, apart from its other nation building activities, was the promotion ofindigenous manufactures. Nabogopal Mitra was inspired and supported byRajnarain Bose who was also among the first nationalist leaders to encouragethe use of indigenous cloth and other articles to the exclusion of foreignproducts.59 Bengali journals played a vital role in championing the cause ofSwadeshi among common people. Grāmbarta Prakāshikā appealed:

“Foreign clothes are cheaper than Indian clothes. So people buy foreignmade clothes. But if we think logically, our clothes are more durable thanthose. So in long run Indian clothes are more useful. Due to thedevelopment of the textile industry, Europeans produce cheaper machinemade clothes. If our countrymen would try to develop textile industry inIndia, then we can defeat Manchester. But it will take time. We arerequesting our countrymen to kindly consider the miserable condition ofthe people attached to handicrafts and for the sake of these people buyIndian clothes.”60


Some articles which appeared in these journals were very encouraging.Bhāratī, run entirely by the Tagore family, was optimistic in emphasizingthe role of indigenous enterprise:

“Inspite of loss of sovereignty, that the Bengali people have not lost theirdetermination is really a good sign. They are learning agriculture inScotland, achieving distinct positions in England in various branches ofscience, studying the principles of mathematics, getting professorship atRussian university, fighting to unite India politically, denying obeying thesocial taboos and raising their voices against the misrule of the government.

It is not far away that Bengali youth would learn marine science,mechanical engineering, etc. There is very limited scope in the governmentjobs. So in near future they would go abroad to acquire technical educationand business skills. Gradually they would become interested in trade andbusiness.

We are very hopeful that independent business enterprise would flourishin Bengal. If the government does not create an adverse environment,then our trade and business would definitely shine. The people of theother parts of India are very much interested in business. They are facingmany adversities due to absence of proper education. But educated andintelligent Bengalis would definitely overcome these obstacles and earnimmense wealth through trade and industry. So these two are the mostimportant catalysts for the development of our country.”61

The employment creating potential of industrialization formed a majortheme of Swadeshi propaganda. Many started believing that a faulty systemof education combined with lack of industrial development had led to theservices and the professions being overcrowded. In the letter half of nineteenthcentury few Bengalis with great entrepreneurial abilities, started their ownbusiness ventures. Hemendramohan Bose, Kishori Mohan Bagchi, etc. wereideal examples of this period.

Hemendramohan Bose, better known as H. Bose, was the firstcommercially successful perfumer of India. Kuntalin, a hair oil, the perfumeDeelkhos, many kinds of fruit syrups, and hair wash-all of his products wona big market. Tāmbulin in a way was years ahead of the present day Pān-parag class.62 In promoting consumer products, Bose was the first Indian toexploit the art of advertisement.63 He employed an Indian artist named P. C.Ghosh who was the first to depict Indian women to illustrate theadvertisements. The copy-writing was done by Bose himself. In fact, it is


the large body of Bose’s advertisements which constitutes the source materialfor recording and interpreting his entrepreneurship. One such example-

“For the hair you have KuntalinFor chewing betel take TambulinIn the handkerchief use Deelkhos

Thanks says H. Bose”64

Bose was choosy about selecting avenues to promote his wares. Hepreferred The Bengalee and Amrita Bāzār Patrikā under Indian ownership,to The Statesman which was the leading newspaper of the day.

Hemendramohan was also the first to turn out indigenous voicerecordings on a commercial scale in India. He founded the phonographicbusiness in 1905. ‘The Talking Machine Hall’, as it was named, was situatedin Marble House at 41, Dharmatala Street. In early 1906, at the peak of theanti-partition agitation in Bengal, the first batch of phonographic records, socalled cylinder records were offered for sale.65 Labeled as H. Bose’s Records,all of them were of patriotic songs and sung by Rabindranath Tagore,Dwijendralal Roy, etc. In the domain of the history of technology, Bose willbe well remembered for his endeavour to produce sound-recordings. He wasawarded a gold medal at the Industrial Exhibition of Calcutta, 1905-06, forthese on the recommendation of Prof. J. C. Bose, the judge.66 With theadvent of the disc record, H. Bose felt the need to switch from thecumbersome cylinders. He got into a partnership with the famous Frenchfirm of Pathe and got many of his cylinders transferred into discs bearingthe label, Pathe-H. Bose’s Record. One such record, containing the recitationof ‘Sonār Tarī’ on one side and the song ‘Bande Mātaram’ on the other isthe oldest existing voice recording of Rabindranath.63

Another prominent entrepreneur of late nineteenth century was KishoriMohan Bagchi. He set up ‘P. M. Bagchi & Co.’ in a rented house in northCalcutta in 1883. It was initially called ‘Durjeepara Chemical Works’, thenrenamed ‘Durjeepara Chemicals and Rubber Stamp Works’. After three yearsit was known as ‘P. M. Bagchi & Co.’68 Its first product was ink.Advertisements declared: “Aniline ink was first invented in Germany in1879, after four years in 1883 it was manufactured in the Eastern world byP.M.B.”69 They manufactured different types of ink, which required not onlyindividual initiative but also sufficient knowledge of chemistry.


The principle of self-reliance adopted by the firm was reflected notonly in the purchase of raw-materials for ink, but also in other essentialgoods, e.g., dyes, pots, bottles of different sizes, tin-boxes etc. In the lastquarter of the nineteenth century a large number of Swadeshi companiesmanufacturing glass articles sprang up in many areas of Calcutta: the IndianGlass Works Ltd., Calcutta Glass Works, Bengal Glass Works, etc.70 TheIndian Glass Works was such a Swadeshi company which supplied glassarticles to P.M.B.

Fig. 2: An Advertisement of P.M. Bagchi & Co [Prabasi, Vol. 8, No. 6, 1317 B.S. (1910)]:Proprietor Kishori Mohan Bagchi, a prominent entrepreneur of late nineteenth century Bengal,pursued a policy of self-reliance in the technological field and took particular care to promoteresearch relating to Swadeshi industries.

Essence and perfumery constituted the second major branch of thefirm. Another major department was the Rubber Stamp Department. Of thetechnological fields in which they excelled, the manufacture of woodenblocks was one. The need for wooden blocks arose out of demands from thepress. Wooden blocks were necessary for printing pictures in books and


advertisements. These needed skilled artisans, settled in the Garanhata andBattala areas of north Calcutta. Their artistic skill and knowledge of printingwas commendable and they brought line and half-tone-effects to books andadvertisements. P.M.B. is the only firm that produced such a wide varietyof goods. It could be combine almanac and publication with ink, perfumes,type foundry, rubber stamp, first syrups and medicines.71 P.M.B. did notsimply manufacture different commodities by mainly relying on indigenoussources; it also pursued a policy of self-reliance in the technological field,despite limitations. The small and middle Bengali entrepreneurs, like KishoriMohan Bagchi and his firm, took particular care to promote research relatingto Swadeshi industries.

Among modern industries, the first and in many ways the mostremarkable of all was the Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works(BCPW), founded by the great scientist and patriot Prafulla Chandra Ray in1892.72 Drugs produced from indigenous materials included ayurvedic itemsas well as standard British pharmacopoeia preparations. Patriotic mindeddistributors like Buttokristo Paul and doctors like Radhagobinda Kar andNilratan Sircar helped popularize the drugs and acids manufactured by BCPW.The manufacture of laboratory apparatus and perfumes was also taken inhand. The BCPW did not use imported machinery; all the machines weredesigned and constructed in the workshop of the firm. In 1908 Cummingobserved the enterprise as “an object lesson to capitalists in this province.”73

Ray endeavoured to make his science directly relevant to theimmediate needs of his society. The enterprise BCPW, sought to put scientificand technological knowledge to immediate industrial use, to encourage theidea of self-sufficiency, and to provide employment to many Bengali youths.As a modern scientist, Ray appreciated and tapped the advantages ofindustrialization and believed technical education was of great importanceconsidering the stunted industrial development of India.

Perhaps the last initiative by Bengali entrepreneurs in the nineteenthcentury was the formation of the Bengal Providential Railway Company. Onthe recommendation of the Famine Commission (1881), the railway linebetween Howrah and Tarakeswar was established in 1885. The localzamindārs played a vital role in that venture. The motive behind their movewas to connect the area with the market of Calcutta to strengthen the local


economy. One alumnus of the Thomson Engineering College, Roorkee,Anadaprasad Roy with the help of Amritlal Roy, editor of the English journalHope, prepared a plan to establish a railway connection between Tarakeswarand Mogra on Swadeshi line.74 With the help of local zamindārs and wealthypersons the Bengal Providential Railway Company was established in 1889.Sambād Prabhākar reported:

“We have been listening for long about the opening of railwaycommunication between Tarakeswar and Mogra. Lastly we have come toknow from the Calcutta Gazette that Raja Pari Mohan Bandopadhyay, BabuNandalal Goswami, Babu Chandicharan Sinha, Moulobi Ahmed Box, BabuAnanda Prasad Roy, Babu Sri Ramchandra Basu and Babu Amritlal Roytook the initiative to establish the railway line. They were waiting forpermission from the Bengal government. On January 13 the governmentgave the necessary permission to go ahead with the plan.

Fig. 3: An advertisement of the Bengal Chemical & Pharmaceutical Works; eminent physiciansof the day, Dr. R. G. Kar, Dr. Nilratan Sircar among others praised the pharmaceutical preparationsof the firm (The Amrita Bāzār Patrikā, July 19, 1897)


They established a joint-stock company to raise money for the project.The name of the company is ‘Bengal Providential Railway Company Ltd.’The line will start from Tarakeswar and after touching Gopinagar, Dasghara,Bonpur, Dhanekhali, Majinan, Gopalpur, Melki, Dwarbasini, Mahanad, SultanGacha; will reach Mogra. Two bridges of 40 feet length have to be built nearDasghara and Bonpur. The speed of the train on the proposed line would be12 miles per hour. So it would take two and half hours from Tarakeswar toMogra.”75

In the primary stage Anadaprasad was the chief engineer and laterDhanakrishna Basu took over charge. The first railway line built entirely onIndian initiative began running on 2 April 1895.76 The Bengal ProvidentialRailway Company was a true example of Swadeshi capital and management.

Thus we have seen there was a positive effort in Bengal by the endof the nineteenth century. Many indigenous enterprises came up during thatperiod, but few of these were really successful. Examples of H. Bose, P. M.Bagchi & Co., the zamindārs of rural Bengal to establish railwaycommunication and above all Prafulla Chandra Ray proved that there wasno dearth of entrepreneurial abilities among the Bengali people at the turnof the nineteenth century.

CONCLUSION

One of the important factors hampering the growth of industry inBengal was the dearth of adequately trained technicians. Consequently, oneof the important and oft-repeated demands of the Bengali leadership was fornew technical schools, colleges, and institutes in order to spread technicalknowledge far and wide.77

The Bengali intellectuals pointed out that one of the reasons whyyouth did not show enthusiasm for technical education was the lack ofemployment opportunities, because of the industrial backwardness of thecountry. The government was urged to encourage recipients of technicaleducation by providing them with jobs, and in particular to throw open toIndians the higher posts in the PWD, telegraph department, and railways.Lack of technical education had been used as a justification for the exclusionof Indians from responsible posts in industry and government through thenineteenth century. While stressing the responsibility of the government, the


Bengali leadership laid a great deal of emphasis on self-help. Prafulla ChandraRay was inspired by the close coordination of the West between industryand science to enrich each other and started the Bengal Chemical &Pharmaceutical Works to achieve the same.

The nature of technical education to be imparted in the technicalinstitutions also drew the attention of Bengali leaders.78 They took strongexception to, and trenchantly criticized the official policy of confiningtechnical education mostly to the improvement of the style of work ofcarpenters, smiths and other handicraftsmen. They pointed out that Bengalalready had enough trained artisans. What the province needed were modernengineers. The main goal of technical education had to be not the revival ofthe extinct and dying industries but the establishment of new large-scaleindustries which would produce goods which were at that moment beingimported. So the Bengali intellectuals vigorously pressed for the opening ofhigh level institutions where the most advanced technical education wouldbe provided. Pramatha Nath Bose, a noted geologist and science-enthusiast,rightly observed:

“Yes, technical education is very badly needed in this country. But whatkind of technical education is it that we want? Technical education maybe briefly defined to be a training for industries. In order to settle whatkind of technical education is specially wanted, we must find out whatindustries are capable of special development. Now industries may begrouped under two heads- (1) Art-Industries, such as carpentry, shoe-making, engraving, etc, that is to say, industries which have a very remote,if any, connection with science. (2) Science-Industries, industries more orless dependent upon some branch or other of natural science, such asmining, glass-manufacturing, cotton-manufacturing, &c. From what I havealready said, it will be apparent that it is the science and not the artindustries that require to be specially developed.”79

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This article owes a great deal to Prof. Deepak Kumar. I am thankfulespecially to Prof. Smritikumar Sarkar, Prof. Ranjan Chakrabarti, Prof. SandipBasu Sarbadhikary and the anonymous referee for their encouragingcomments and critical suggestions. I am however, responsible for anyerrors.


NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. J–ānāneshan was the mouthpiece of the Young Bengal. This weekly journal appearedin 18th June 1831 and Dakkhinaranjan Mukhopadhyay was the editor. The journalfound a model Bengali entrepreneur in the enterprising Dwarakanath Tagore whostarted his own commercial house in full partnership with Englishmen.

2. P. C. Ray strongly held that the Bengalis should cease to take clerical jobs and turnto business and industry – Acharya Prafulla Ray Birth Centenary Volume, CalcuttaUniversity, Calcutta, 1962, p. 299.

3. Recent researches have shown the material development and pursuit of science,technology and business were systematically ignored in western treatises on the subject.India’s commercial and industrial heritage was ignored and even suppressed to keepthe industrial domination of Europe. See C. Palit and P. K. Bhattacharya (eds.),Business History of India, Kalpaz, Delhi, 2006.

4. ‘Engraji Muldhon Biniyoge Bhārater Upokār Kī?’ Somprakāsh, 18 Baishāk 1290(April, 1883).

5. Sambād Prabhākar, 22 July 1847.

6. Gadgil, chapters III and XII.

7. See S. G. Deuskar, Desher Katha, Calcutta, 1904.

8. Palit, 2006, p. 49.

9. Samāchār Darpa, 21 April, 1838.

10. The modus operandi of an agency house is described thus by R. M. Martin in 1832:‘A large mercantile house is established at Calcutta, with a branch in London; thepartnership formed of various individuals-one a retired civil servant of the Company-another a military man-a third a doctor and fourth a London merchant. They possessno real capital, but establish an agency and banking business, receive as deposits theaccumulating fortunes of the East India Company’s servants and trade on thesedeposits’. Quoted in R. K. Ray (ed.), ‘Introduction’, in Entrepreneurship and Industryin India, 1800-1947, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1992, p. 19.

11. B. B. Kling, Partner in Empire: Dwarkanath Tagore and the Age of Enterprise inEastern India, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1976, pp. 55-56.

12. A banian is a person by whom all purchases and all sales of goods, merchandize andproduce are made and through whom all shipments are made on account and onbehalf of the merchants or mercantile firm in whose establishment he is a banian. SeeSinha, 1967, 121-148.

13. C. Palit, ‘Bengali Business Enterprise and the BNCCI’, in C. Palit and P. K.Bhattacharya (eds.), op.cit, pp. 252-3.

14. Mittra, 1870.


15. Samāchār Darpa, 4 October, 1834.

16. Samāchār Darpa, 18 April, 1835.

17. This celebrated Parsee had the unique credit of being the first Indian to challengeEuropean monopolies in the fields of insurance and banking. Rustomji, Turner & Co.was his singular attempt at a joint stock company with foreign collaboration (1827).He owned a fleet of 40 ships which sailed regularly to the Far East, Australia andSouthern Coast of India. In 1837 he started a Docking Company and bought upKidderpore and Salkia Docks. Many ships were built here. He had the far sight toplan a regular steamer service in the rivers of Bengal. For the purpose, the IndianGeneral Steam Navigation Company (1844) was founded, of which Rustomji was theonly director. He launched the Bengal Salt Company in Sunderban area. C. Palit,‘Indigenous Business Enterprise in Bengal: 1780-1880’, op. cit.

18. Samāchār Chandrikā, 9 February, 1833.

19. Reformer, 18 March, 1833. This was published by Prasanna Kumar Tagore andrepresenting views close to those of Dwarkanath.

20. J–ānāneshan, 14 December, 1833.

21. J–ānāneshan, 9 August, 1834.

22. Samāchār Darpa, 9 January, 1836.

23. For more information see, B. B. Kling, Partner of Empire, op. cit., pp. 94-155.

24. Samāchār Darpa, 1 July, 1835.

25. Chakrabarty, 1974, pp. 107-11.

26. Samāchār Chandrikā, 22 September, 1845: ‘We came to know from Englishmen thatBabu Dwarkanath Tagore, now at London, has agreed to help the Company whichwas formed to establish a railway-line in the north-western part of Bengal.’

27. Mitra, 1869, p. 41.

28. Capper, 1853, pp. 381-2.

29. Stocqueler, 1845, p. 348.

30. Ray, 1992, p. 24.

31. Sambād Prabhākar, 4 April, 1848, reported the sad demise of Carr, Tagore & Co.

32. Headrick, 1988.

33. Ghose, 1968, pp. 110-113.

34. Kling, pp. 251-3.

35. Gadgil, 1959, pp. 18-9.


36. Ghosh, 1868, pp. 57-8.

37. Kling, 1969, p. 25.

38. Sinha, ‘Indian Business Enterprise: Its failure in Calcutta (1800-1848)’, op. cit.

39. Jnānaneshan, 14 December, 1833.

40. Sambād Prabhākar, 22 June, 1847. Tarini Charan wrote, “…if we were courageousand laborious like the Englishmen, then nobody could snatch the wealth of our country.England becomes the richest country of the world by utilizing the wealth of ourcountry. They collect the raw materials from India and convert them in various finishedproducts in their industries. Then we are compelled to buy these goods in a higherprice. If our countrymen become interested in technical education like the British andstart their own industrial enterprise, the misery of our country would certainly cometo an end.”

41. Sambād Prabhākar, 22 June, 1847.

42. Sambād Prabhākar, 23 November, 1853.

43. Sambād Pūrochandrodaya, 1 February, 1853.

44. Sambād Prabhākar, 17 August, 1854.

45. Somprakāsh, 13 July, 1863.

46. Tattobodhini Patrikā 321, 1870, in B. Ghose (ed.), Samayik Patre Banglar Samajchitra,Vol. 2, Calcutta: Bengal Publishers Pvt. Ltd, 1963, p. 250.

47. Ibid.

48. Amrita Bāzār Patrikā, 6 January, 1869. The title of the article is very interesting-‘Chakuri Kukuri’.

49. Somprakāsh, 6 August, 1883.

50. Somprakāsh, 23 March, 1886.

51. Sādhārani, 28 December, 1873.

52. Sādhārani, 21June, 1874.

53. Sādhārani, 5 September, 1875.

54. Sen, 1977, p. 95.

55. Bhattacharya, January 1965, pp. 1-22.

56. Sarkar, 1973, p. 94.

57. “About this time (1891-92) another matter began seriously to occupy my thoughts…theadventurous non-Bengalis, notably the Marwaris from the barren deserts of Rajputana,were swarming not only in Calcutta but also in the interior of Bengal and capturingall key-points of the export and import business…”, 1932, pp. 89-90.


58. Bhattacharya, 2005, pp. 90-110.

59. Chandra, 1966, p. 64.

60. Grāmbarta Prakāshikā, 22 July, 1876.

61. Bhārati, I, (Magh, 1284), January 1877.

62. Ghosh, 1988, p. 195.

63. The small and medium swadeshi entrepreneurs used advertisements as one of themediums of propaganda among people through journals, almanacs, propagandaliterature, hand-bills etc. These ads became one of the major sources of informationon the industrial development of Bengal along swadeshi lines. For more informationsee A. Bhattacharya, ‘Swadeshi industries in colonial Bengal: Advertisement as asource of information’, in Business, Politics & Technology, op. cit., pp. 30-51.

64. Quoted in S. Ghosh, op. cit., p. 199.

65. Amrita Bāzār Patrikā, 19 March, 1906.

66. Indian Industrial Exhibition (a hand book), Calcutta, 1906.

67. Ghosh, The Asiatic Society, 2001, p. 175.

68. Bhattacharya, A. (ed.), 1983, p. 9.

69. Quoted in Bhattacharya, A., 1998, p. 111.

70. Bhattacharya, A., 1986-87, pp. 70-73.

71. P.M.B.’s policy of self-reliance was manifested also in the Medicine department. Ithad two branches: one, Kabiraji Siddhasram (ayurvedic section) and the other was theallopathic section. The first was set up in 1907 and the second was in 1941. Theallopathic department was significant for original research and invention. The companymanufactured a number of patent medicines for the treatment of various diseases likefever, dysentery, colitis, etc.

72. ‘Our educated young men, the moment they came out of their colleges, were on thelook out for a situation or a soft job under the Government…, or failing that in aEuropean mercantile firm. The professions were becoming overcrowded. A few cameout of Engineering College, but they too were helpless seekers after jobs…What todo with all these young men?...How to bring bread to the mouths of the ill-fed,famished young men of the middle classes?” Thus Ray explains the motives behindhis setting-up of BCPW. P. C. Ray, op. cit., pp. 89-92.

73. Cumming, 1908, p. 31.

74. Sen, S., 2003, p. 423.

75. Sambād Prabhākar, 25 January, 1892.

76. Sahāchār, 3 April, 1895.

77. Palit, 2004, pp. 91-140.


78. Dinanath Sen, the Head Master of Dacca Normal School, prepared a proposal for theschool of industry or practical science in 1876. He vividly described the necessity forsuch an institution, its objectives, mode of instruction in it. He identified, ‘the highpay necessary for employing European engineers or superintendents, the cost and riskof importing European made machinery, the difficulty of having machines, when outof order, cheaply and expeditiously repaired on the spot’ for the backwardness ofIndia in industrial sector. Dinanath’s prescription was to create a local class of well-trained mechanical engineers which would give impetus to the introduction of scientificmethods in manufacturing industry. He was interested in mechanical engineering, asfor civil engineering there was already Bengal Engineering College. Although he wasapproached by the India League and DPI, but his proposal remained unheeded. D.Sen, A Scheme for the School of Industry or Practical Science Proposed to beEstablished in Calcutta, Calcutta: Minerva Press, 1876.

79. Bose, 1906, p.11.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary SourcesContemporary Bengali Journals

Amrita Bāzār Patrikā, Bhārati, Grāmbarta, Prakāshikā, J–ānāneshan, Somprākash, SambādPrabhākar, Samāchār Darpa, Samāchar Chandrikā, Sambād Pūrochandrodaya,Sādhārani, Sahāchār, Tattobodhini Patrikā

Contemporary Publications

Bose, P. N., Essays and Lectures on the Industrial Development of India, Newman & Co,Calcutta, 1906.

Capper, J., The Three Presidencies of India: A History of the Rise and Progress of theBritish Indian Possessions, Ingram, Cooke & Co, London, 1853.

Cumming, J. C., Review of the Industrial Position and Prospects in Bengal in 1908-withSpecial Reference to the Industrial Survey of 1890, Government Press, Calcutta, 1908.

Deuskar, S. G., Desher Katha, Calcutta, 1904.

Ghosh, G. C., Ramdulal Dey: The Bengali Millionaire, Calcutta, 1868.

Indian Industrial Exhibition (a hand book), Calcutta, 1906.

Mittra, K. C., Memoir of Dwarkanath Tagore, Thacker, Spink & Co, Calcutta, 1870.

Mitra, K. C., Mutty Lal Seal, Calcutta, 1869.

Sen, D., A Scheme for the School of Industry or Practical Science Proposed to be Establishedin Calcutta, Minerva Press, Calcutta, 1876.

Stocqueler, J. H., The Handbook of India, Second Edition, Wm. H. Allen: London, 1845.


Secondary SourcesAcharya Prafulla Ray Birth Centenary Volume, Calcutta University, Calcutta, 1962.

Bhattacharya, A., (ed.), Satabarsha-purti Smarak Patrika P. M. Bagchi & Co. 1883-1983,Calcutta, 1983.

Bhattacharya, A., ‘More About Swadeshi Enterprise’, Journal of History, Jadavpur University,Vol. 7, 1986-87, pp. 70-73.

Bhattacharya, A. ‘Swadeshi Industry and Technology: P. M. Bagchi & Co.’, in C. Palit andA. Bhattacharya (eds.), Science, Technology, Medicine and Environment in India:Historical Perspectives, Bibhasa, Kolkata, 1998.

Bhattacharya, A., ‘Heterogenity of the Indian bourgeoisie in colonial India: A comparativestudy’ in Business, Politics and Technology, Readers Service, Kolkata, 2005.

Bhattacharya, S., ‘Laissez Faire in India’, Indian Economic & Social History Review, Vol.II, No. 1, January 1965, pp. 1-22.

Chakrabarty, D., ‘The Colonial Context of the Bengal Renaissance: A Note on Early Railway-Thinking in Bengal’, Indian Economic & Social History Review, Vol. 11, No. 1,March 1974, pp. 107-11.

Chandra, B., The Rise and Growth of Economic Nationalism in India, Anamika Publishers,New Delhi, 1966.

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Ghosh, S., Karigari Kalpana O Bangali Udyog, Dey’s Publishing, Calcutta, 1988.

Headrick, D. R., The Tentacles of Progress: Technology Transfer in the Age of Imperialism,1850-1940, Oxford University Press, New York, 1988.

Kling, B. B., ‘Entrepreneurship and Regional Identity in Bengal’, in David Kopf (ed.),Bengal Regional Identity, Michigan State University, Michigan, 1969.

Kling, B. B., Partner in Empire: Dwarkanath Tagore and the Age of Enterprise in EasternIndia, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1976.


Palit, C. and P. K. Bhattacharya (eds.), Business History of India, Kalpaz, Delhi, 2006.

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Palit, C., Science and Nationalism in Bengal, Institute of Historical Studies, Kolkata, 2004.

Ray, P. C., Life and Experiences of a Bengali Chemist, Vol. 1, Chuckervertty, Chatterjee &Co, Calcutta, 1932.

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